Taiwanese patent publication No. 1389639, corresponding to U.S. counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,178 B2 discloses a conventional spinning reel which includes a reel unit, a rotation transmission mechanism, a handle assembly, a rotor, a spool shaft, an oscillating mechanism, and a spool. The reel unit includes a reel body that has a first opening, and a first lid member that covers the first opening. The rotation transmission mechanism includes a master gear shaft that is rotatably mounted to the reel unit, and a master gear that is disposed on the master gear shaft integrally rotatably about a first shaft axis. The reel body includes a first rotation support portion that rotatably supports the master gear shaft on a master gear side of the spool shaft. The first lid member includes a second rotation support portion that rotatably supports the master gear shaft on a first lid member side of the master gear.
Another conventional spinning reel shown in FIG. 1 includes a reel body 1, a drive unit 2 mounted to the reel body 1, an oscillating unit 3 mounted inside the reel body 1, a rotor 4 mounted forwardly of the reel body 1, and a spool 5 mounted forwardly of the rotor 4.
The drive unit 2 includes a crank 201 which is rotatably mounted on the reel body 1, a main shaft 202 which is coupled to be driven by the crank 201 to rotate, an output wheel 203 which is mounted on the main shaft 202, and a tubular worm 204 which is in mesh with the output wheel 203.
The oscillating unit 3 includes a worm member 301 which is in mesh with the tubular worm 204, a rotary shaft 302 which is coupled to the worm member 301, a guiding shaft 303 which is disposed parallel to the rotary shaft 302, a slider block 304 which is slidably mounted on the guiding shaft 303, and a spool rod 305 which is coupled to the slider block 304 and which extends through the tubular worm 204 to connect the spool 5. A camming groove 306 is formed in an outer peripheral surface of the rotary shaft 302, and a cam follower 307 is mounted to the slider block 304 and engages the camming groove 306 to provide a camming action.
When the main shaft 202 is driven by the crank 201 to rotate, by virtue of the camming action, the slider block 304 is guided by the guiding shaft 303 to linearly reciprocate to thereby permit linear reciprocating motion of the spool rod 305 and the spool 5. Therefore, a fishing line (not shown) guided by the rotor 4 may evenly wind onto the spool 5.
However, the provision of the guiding shaft 303 may undesirably increase the volume of the spinning reel. In addition, the caroming action may cause wobble of the slider block 304 which may adversely affect the linear reciprocating motion of the spool rod 305 and the spool 5.